Sauerkraut for today - not four weeks from now!

Sauerkraut is a must with brats! But store bought tinned and mason jarred kraut is questionable in it's quality and time consuming if you want to brine and can your own. Here is a super easy recipe that will be ready when you are to eat your brats and pierogies!

Thinly slice one small head of Savoy Cabbage, removing it's core. Place in a one quart lidded container in one and half cups cold water and several squirts of real lemon juice. Sprinkle in a tbls of dill and caraway seeds. Place on the back burner on medium and cover. After 20 minutes add one and one half cups of undiluted apple cider vinegar. Cover and keep at medium for 30 minutes. Stir with a slotted spoon. Put on low for 30 minutes.

It is strong and tangy and amazing!

Deep Dish Oregano Chicken Pizza

 Dough Ingredients:

1 tsp yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole grain flour
1 tsp salt
Sprinkle of sugar
2 tbls olive oil

Put water in a bowl and add the yeast to it. Sprinkle a bit of sugar on top and gently still until creamy, then set it aside.

Mix flours and salt together. Add olive oil and mix well with your fingertips until totally incorporated. Then add yeast water. Mix until an elastic ball forms. Add a little bit of flour at a time if it is too damp. Watch that you don't mix or knead for too long or too hard that you dry it out.

Set aside under a towel while you wash out the bowl. Wipe down the inside of the clean bowl with olive oil and then gently knead the ball for two minutes and then put into the bowl and cover with plastic.

Saute bite sized pieces of chicken in ground Oregano and olive oil and butter.

Then saute onions. Warm up frozen spinach in a bowl of very hot water. Set out Parmesan cheese and shred mozzarella. In another bowl mix crushed tomatoes with a liberal splash of red wine and celery salt.


After one hour of allowing the dough to rise, roll out the dough with a rolling pin and press into a large round dish, or two round cake pans.

Poke with a fork all over the base and sides.

Wipe with olive oil. Then layer in sauce, squeezed spinach, shredded cheese, onions, chicken, and then lastly the parmesan cheese.

Bake at 425 degrees until crust in golden brown and the cheese bubbles, about 25 to 30 minutes.

Allow to cool for ten minutes and then slid onto a wooden cutting board and then cut and serve while warm. Even picky eaters will enjoy this dish!

Here is another variation on the same pizza for New Year's Eve.

Sausage Wraps

Sausage Wraps

We've been making sausage wraps for as long as I can remember, but with canned croissants. Since I started making them with this pretzely/biscuity-ish bread, we just can't go back to canned.

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1 cup warm water

3 cups bread flour

1/2 cup whole grain flour

3 tbls sugar

1 tsp salt 

3 1/2 tbls olive oil

2 packages of Applegate sausages

Mix water and yeast and sprinkle sugar on top. Set aside to proof.

Mix sugar and salt  into flour, and then with your fingertips, incorporate the oil into the flour. Add proofed yeast. Slowly add another 1/2 cup of warm water and mix until the dough rolls into a nice shaggy ball.

Let the dough sit under a towel for five minutes while you wash dishes and wipe down the counter.

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. Knead the dough in a little bit of flour for two minutes, then place in a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Put in a warm spot in your kitchen to rise for one hour.

Cut the dough into eight even pieces and roll in your palms to ball up. 

Cover and let rest for ten minutes.

Roll each ball out like a snake, roughly ten inches in length. Coil each "snake" around each sausage and place on an oiled cookie sheet, about one inch apart.

 Bake until golden brown. Cool for at least ten minutes before eating!